3 Exercises for Overcoming Artists' Block

Here are a few of the design 'exercises' I remember, from a class many years ago, that helped me to become less 'self-conscious' about my art and freed me up to enjoy it! It's essentially a 'playful' approach and if ever you are feeling 'stuck', a little bit of time doing some of these apparently pointless exercises could well lead you out of your 'stuckness'. I would even venture to say that, if you don't think of yourself as an 'artist' they have the potential to convince you otherwise!

1. Taking a line for a walk - literally just letting your pencil, or whatever you choose to draw with, wander about on the paper. Don't try to deliberately make 'interesting shapes' - in fact, don't try to do anything, just let whatever happens happen! I turned on the radio while I was doing this one and found my pencil moving to the rhythms of Beethoven's Violin Concerto!

If you find that you like some of the shapes you've made, you might like to add some colour and who knows? - you might even discover that you've made an abstract pattern that you can find a use for!

2. 'Ts' and 'Ls'  Start with a good-sized piece of cheap paper - layout paper or even newsprint - and roughly mark out a grid on it in thick charcoal. (I think it's best to do these exercises standing at an easel but that's really up to you). Work as fast as you can - don't allow yourself more than about 15-20 minutes. And you may find that music, or television even, will help you to work more instinctively and less 'thoughtfully'.

Without giving it too much thought, mark out interlocking 'T' and 'L' shapes on your grid. It doesn't matter if there are some squares left over, but use as many of them as you can.

 Colour in some of the 'T's' and 'Ls', working quickly so that you don't stop to think! (Important!)

Still working as fast and as furiously as you can, rub out some of the lines (with a tissue or, in my case, my fingers!). Curve some of the lines, add dots and squiggles wherever you like!

You will probably know when you've finished - but you may want to come back and change something later. That's the beauty of working in charcoal!

3. Squares, Circles and Triangles

As before, begin with a large sheet of paper and quickly mark out a pattern of overlapping circles, squares and triangles -

Again, rub out some lines if you wish to make more interesting shapes, but don't give it too much thought; you'll probably want to make more changes as you go along. You'll be getting the idea now that it's just about colouring in with full-bodied black, shades of grey and patterns - it's all up to you!

I was planning to add one further exercise using just overlapping circles, following the same guidelines as above, but introducing some colour.

(It was a similar exercise to this one that evolved into the fabric design below - it looked wonderful on sheer muslin!)

But unfortunately Blogger seems to have gone completely mad today and it's taken me more than an hour to get everything, so far, in roughly the right place and with the right size font! In any case, I think I've posted enough for you to get the general idea so I'll leave it to you to invent some more similar exercises!

It's worth saying again that it's all about 'playing' with lines and shapes and if it feels as if you've gone back to Infant School, the exercise has succeeded! It really is that child-like spontaneity and lack of self-consciousness that we need to re-capture and build on if we are to unlock the artist that is inside each one of us!

6 Tips for overcoming 'Artists' Block'

'Artists' Block' and what causes it?
I'm fortunate in that I rarely suffer from 'artists' block' but I do experience occasional lapses in confidence, which probably amounts to the same thing. And when it happens, it can be devastating! Fear of not being able to achieve the desired result probably underlies all such lapses or blocks and it is possibly the  root of what we perceive as 'lack of inspiration' as well. So here are a few tips that I've found handy for getting myself past such situations.

Turning off the part of your brain that judges and criticises.
Common to all the following suggestions is finding and using the antidote to that fear - fostering the thought or feeling that the end result is unimportant. It's the fun of the process that matters. Once you can get yourself into that way of thinking, the pressure is off and 'flow' replaces it. I find that listening to music or even (sort of!) watching television helps  me to silence those undermining thoughts about success or failure, that are not really at all relevant but which are keeping you stuck.

Some practical tips and wrinkles
Sometimes the worry about wasting expensive art materials can be an obstacle to experimenting so get around that by using cheap paper - I do all my initial sketches with an ordinary non-stop pencil on the backs of sheets of used typing paper! Children's crayons and powder paints - especially when mixed with washing up liquid! - are relatively cheap and effective in the following 'free-ing-up' exercise.

1. Doodle. Yes, most of us doodle at some point, while talking on the phone or in a boring meeting. Remember the covers of those exercise books you happily covered in doodles at school? Some of our doodles will be abstract shapes but some of them will take on a recognisable form. Doodle whilst watching television and once you notice that your doodle is turning into a 'something', develop it, simply for the fun of it!

Yes, I know this is far from 'perfect'; for a start, the objects on the table need to be moved around instead of standing in a row! And you can see that when I draw curled up comfortably on the sofa, everything has a tendency to be lopsided!  But it's how the 'characters' in my greeting card designs invariably start out!

2. Try a different medium, the further removed from what you normally use the better. It may just be that you have become so comfortable with your familiar medium that you've become stale. Experiment, remembering that it doesn't matter if your first attempts are disappointing - you can't expect to handle a completely different medium perfectly immediately. For the moment, it's all about exploration and discovery. And the bonus is that you'll probably find your usual medium so easy to handle when you return to it!

3. Explore a different subject matter. If you normally paint landscapes, try a portrait. If your work so far has been confined to meticulous plant drawings, experiment with wild seascapes from your imagination. Don't think about it as important, just do it for the fun of trying something new! You are not wasting any more time than you would be if you just continued in your 'stuckness'.

4. Practise your drawing - just for the sake of improving it, rather than for a specific project. If you're stuck for ideas of what to draw, just open up a magazine or newspaper and draw whatever you find
there! This one was from a magazine -

You can see from the lightness of my drawing how uncharacteristically nervous and tentative I was at the time!

5. Copy another artist's painting. This may sound like a very strange idea and it's something I always wondered about when I saw art students copying the masterpieces in Norwich Castle Museum Gallery - until I had a go myself! Artists have always done it and it's a great way to improve both your skills and your confidence.

6. Use the power of your imagination to trick your judging mind. If you have a project that you really must get on with, but are feeling 'stuck' with, it may help to tap into your imagination and pretend that you are doing it for someone who never fails to be enthusiastic and encouraging about your work. (I've realised with hindsight that, at school, I used this technique to surprise everyone with exam results that were far better than my classwork!)

Next week, I'll post some demonstrations of 'free-ing-up exercises' that I've found helpful. But the most important thing to remember is that you need to let go of 'destination consciousness', ie thinking and worrying about the end result, and 'just DO it'!

If anyone has other suggestions they'd like to share, please leave them in the comments box.